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True Words Baptist Church — Revelation 21:5
BOOK 42 OF 66 · GOSPELS · KING JAMES BIBLE

Luke 4

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REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Luke 4 Overview

Jesus, full of the Holy Ghost, is tempted by the devil in the wilderness and answers from Deuteronomy. He returns to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, reads Isaiah in the Nazareth synagogue, and declares the Scripture fulfilled in their hearing. The hometown crowd turns from admiration to murderous rage after He cites God’s mercy to Gentiles. In Capernaum Jesus teaches with authority, casts out a devil, heals Simon’s mother-in-law, and ministers to many.

LukeBook
4Chapter
44Verses
GospelsDivision

Before you read Luke 4

Coming from

Luke 3 established the immediate context: Luke dates John the Baptist’s ministry under named rulers and presents him preaching repentance and baptism in the Jordan.

In this chapter

Luke 4 joins Spirit-filled testing, prophetic fulfillment, rejected hometown revelation, Gentile mercy, and authority over demons and disease.

Leads into

Luke 5 continues the account: After a miraculous catch of fish, Simon Peter falls before Jesus and is called to catch men; James and John join him.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Luke’s ordering of temptations ends at Jerusalem, anticipating the Gospel’s strong geographic movement toward the city.

Jesus’ Nazareth reading from Isaiah identifies His mission with good news, release, sight, and liberty; His examples of Elijah and Elisha expose the hometown assumption that covenant familiarity entitles them to preferential miracles.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Jesus resists temptation in obedient dependence on Scripture

He refuses appetite, worldly rule, and testing God as shortcuts.

Jesus presents Himself as fulfillment of prophetic hope

The Nazareth sermon makes an explicit claim about Isaiah’s promise.

Familiarity can harden into entitlement

The hometown audience moves from wonder to fury when grace is shown as wider than themselves.

Jesus’ word carries authority in both teaching and exorcism

Capernaum responds with amazement to command that unclean spirits obey.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Deuteronomy 6–8

Jesus’ wilderness answers arise from Israel’s own wilderness instruction.

Isaiah 61:1–2; 58:6

The Nazareth reading defines Jesus’ Spirit-anointed mission.

1 Kings 17; 2 Kings 5

The widow of Sidon and Naaman show Old Testament mercy reaching Gentiles.

Hebrews 4:15

Jesus is later described as tempted yet without sin.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not use Jesus’ Scripture reading as a generic promise that every social or physical problem is immediately removed

The prophecy centers on the Messiah’s mission and unfolds across His saving work.

Do not interpret hometown rejection as proof that all Jewish people rejected Jesus

Many of His earliest followers and crowds are Jewish; Luke records varied responses.

Do not treat the devil’s Scripture citation as evidence Scripture is unreliable

The issue is misuse, not defect in the word.

Read Luke 4 watching for…

The role of the Holy Ghost throughout the chapter.

The order and content of the temptations.

What Jesus reads in Nazareth.

The crowd’s shift in reaction.

Gentile examples from Elijah and Elisha.

Authority in Capernaum.

TWBC REVIEW STANDARD

Plain language. Scripture first. Fact distinguished from inference. No filler. No fake certainty. Designed to help you read the Bible itself.

Chapter outline4 sections
1-13Jesus is tempted by the devil in the wilderness14-30Jesus teaches in Nazareth from Isaiah and is rejected by his own townspeople31-37Jesus teaches with authority in Capernaum and casts out an unclean spirit38-44Jesus heals Simon’s mother-in-law and many others and preaches in Galilee
1

And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

2

Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.

3

And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.

4

And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

5

And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

6

And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.

7

If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.

8

And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

9

And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:

10

For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee:

11

And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

12

And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

13

And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.

14

And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.

15

And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.

16

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

17

And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,

18

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

19

To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

20

And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.

21

And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

22

And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?

23

And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.

24

And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.

25

But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;

26

But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.

27

And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.

28

And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,

29

And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.

30

But he passing through the midst of them went his way,

31

And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days.

32

And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power.

33

And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice,

34

Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God.

35

And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not.

36

And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out.

37

And the fame of him went out into every place of the country round about.

38

And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her.

39

And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her: and immediately she arose and ministered unto them.

40

Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.

41

And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ.

42

And when it was day, he departed and went into a desert place: and the people sought him, and came unto him, and stayed him, that he should not depart from them.

43

And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent.

44

And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee.